Love your fellow as yourself

By viewing one’s body with scorn and contempt, and finding joy in the joy of the soul alone is a direct and easy path toward fulfilling the mitzvah, “You shall love your fellow as yourself,” with regard to every Yid both great and small — in spiritual stature. Since his body is despised and loathsome he will not love himself on account of his body more than he loves his fellow; and as for the soul and spirit, the differences between his own soul and that of his fellow surely will not diminish the love between them, for who can know the soul and spirit’s greatness and excellence in their source and root — the living Hashem?
How, then, can one claim that his soul is superior to his fellow’s? Furthermore, they are actually all equal; and not only equal yet separate, but, furthermore, they all have one father — one source, and within their source they all comprise one entity.
It is on account of this common root in the One Hashem that all of Yiden are called “brothers” — in the full sense of the word, only the bodies are distinct from each other.

(Lessons in Tanya Chapter 32)

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This entry was posted on October 26, 2009 at 10:22 am and is filed under Simcha, Unity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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